


Tilting the World

by caramelcat



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mentions of Mental Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22431691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramelcat/pseuds/caramelcat
Summary: Patton suggests a day at an arcade. Virgil is unsure if he'll enjoy it at all, but at least he's spending time with a certain someone who may or may not be his crush.Sometimes things turn out very unexpectedly, in a very good way.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	Tilting the World

“GUYS! I know what we should do today!”

Virgil jumps and looks up from where he had been scrolling aimlessly on tumblr. He hadn’t been actively taking in anything as his thumb moved rhythmically up and down, his mind in a place where he was just floating. Now he has been given a sharp reminder of his existence in a world full of things and people. People like Patton, who was looking excitedly at the three of them. He’s sitting up straighter in his armchair where previously he had been curled up and also on his phone, most likely playing some sort of cute cat game. Something very Patton-esque, Virgil guesses.

“What do you propose?” Logan says from the spot next to Virgil on the loveseat (which, while lame, he knows, makes him blush a little at the thought of sitting on something called a  _ loveseat  _ with Logan).

Virgil glances at him and notices he’s still in his perfect posture he started out in during their time of chilling in the living room. They had all wanted to do something today, even if it meant just hanging out and doing their own thing, but together. Something Virgil enjoys immensely. There’s no expectations from him, he can relax in his own space, and he doesn’t have to be alone. A triple winning combination, in his opinion. He can also sneak glances at an unaware Logan, but that’s just an added bonus. The four of them are almost always together, them being a close knit group of friends after having met in high school, so he ends up seeing  _ a lot  _ of Logan. He’ll never turn down the chance to look at him more, though. How embarrassing. He almost starts blushing as his thoughts continue spiraling all about Logan until Roman cuts into them.

“That sounds like an excellent idea, my friend!” Roman’s standing from the couch, posing as per usual with his head tilted up and fists on his hips.

Virgil snorts before he realizes that he has completely missed part of the conversation. An important part considering the fact that the other three are now looking at him expectedly. Roman’s agreed to what ever Patton was talking about, so Logan must have as well already. Oh shit.

“Uh, what was that again?” he says somewhat sheepishly.

Logan gives a small, reassuring smile (Virgil does  _ not  _ redden at all at that being directed his way.  _ Not at all.  _ How does Logan still make him act like this with the smallest of things?). “Patton suggested we all go to the new arcade in the mall. Roman and I have agreed. Would you like to as well?”

Virgil feels a stirring in his chest, a faint hurt from a long time ago. He can see an old group of friends from middle school. There’s an arcade in the background and all of the other kids are looking at him annoyed. He was too nervous to play anything. He didn’t want to do the go-karts, which they thought was lame. The rockwall scared him. It was loud. It was busy. He couldn’t do anything. They all left him and he just wanted to go home. They drifted apart afterwards.

Virgil didn’t want that to happen again. He didn’t want to lose them just because he was too much of a loser to be able to play anything. He couldn’t help the anxiety freezing him from the inside out, but they wouldn’t understand. How could they? It was supposed to be fun. It wasn’t supposed to be scary at all. He just had a broken, overactive brain which currently wouldn’t let go of the thought of losing his three best friends in the whole world. Even with a logical part of him saying that it was different this time; these people  _ understand.  _ That they love him and he loves them. But that doesn't erase what happened, and it doesn’t erase the fear of history repeating itself.

So he finds himself nodding hesitantly with a small smile so they don’t realize his mind is overrun with anxious thoughts. He thinks Logan might suspect something because it almost looks like he’s studying him for a split second before he gets up along with Roman and Patton. Virgil hopes he didn’t notice anything was wrong. Nothing’s wrong. Who is Virgil without the anxiety racing through his veins and overtaking his heart and mind? It’s nothing new. Nothing to worry about, he convinces himself. This will be fun. It’s supposed to be.

* * *

They all pile into Patton’s car, a used SUV he had gotten after saving up from various dog walking and baby/dog sitting jobs, along with the help of his parents. He was the first of the four to get a car, which led him to often give all the others rides everywhere. This, as well as his overall caring and nurturing nature, has given him the unofficial title of Dad in the group. Virgil still finds it crazy impressive he had been able to and so willingly to take on all those jobs and get his license as soon as he could. Virgil only got his a couple years after graduating from  _ high school.  _ The others had helped prepare him for it, and they were all there to keep him calm before the test. Without them he wondered if he would have ever been able to do it. He seriously doubts it. A fond feeling fills his chest as the moment when he had told them he passed flits through his mind. Their reactions had been so heartwarming and encouraging. Logan had hugged him extra long that day.

Speaking of Logan, Virgil can feel his eyes on him occasionally throughout the ride. Patton is driving, of course, with Roman in the passenger seat going off about some wild dream he had last night. Virgil catches a few phrases here and there such as “ _ Dragon witch _ ” and “ _ second most handsome prince _ ”. Typical Roman. Virgil is completely lost though and wonders how Patton is faring, who is enthusiastically nodding along and smiling wide. Typical Patton. Virgil himself is staring out the window and thinking.  _ Typical Virgil,  _ he thinks and lets out a small snort. Ah, he can see Logan glance at him again from the corner of his eye. Maybe he  _ is  _ suspecting something. Oh well. Maybe this time Virgil will magically not feel the pressure of performing in front of people and be able to participate in playing all those games. Maybe.

Unlikely.

* * *

They arrive after roughly 20 minutes of driving. Roman tells Patton that was only about half of the dream and says he’ll finish it later, to which Patton readily agrees to. Virgil didn’t even know it was possible to have such long, detailed dreams. He wonders what kinds of dreams Logan has. He’s never thought to ask and Logan has never offered to tell one. He makes a mental note to possibly do that. He loves learning all the little details about Logan and tries to remember as many as he can. He may or may not be kind of a sap at heart.

Virgil notices as Patton is parking in a front row Joe that the parking lot is practically empty. With only a few cars scattered about he figures the place must be pretty vacant. He voices his observation out loud.

“That was why I thought today would be good too! I know you don’t like busy places and with it being a Wednesday afternoon it’ll be pretty empty. So it works out!” Patton says to him, looking at him from the rearview mirror.

“Oh, uh, cool.” Virgil feels another fond feeling in his chest and gives a shy smile back at Patton.

Patton beams back and then starts exiting the car. Virgil glances at Logan as he’s about to open his door. He stumbles when he notices Logan staring at him. He must not have noticed when he was talking to Patton. Logan quickly looks away and clears his throat. “Ah, yes, another excellent idea from Patton.” 

“Yeah… Guess he’s full of them today.”

“Indeed.”

A moment passes. Virgil can feel rising panic. He is not good at social situations, especially ones that are increasingly becoming awkward. Why can’t he just be normal around Logan? Him and his stupid crush. What a joke. 

Before his frustrations can increase, a knock from Logan's window makes them both jump. “What’s the holdup, slowpokes?” Roman teases.

“We’re coming, princey! Ever heard of patience?” he yells back.

Roman laughs, “Never heard of him! Is he cute?”

Virgil gives him a small shove when he’s out of the car and laughs too. 

“Oh, Virgil, my good, trusted friend. How you have wounded me so. My arm shall fall off now from your brute strength.” Roman continues as they are walking towards the entrance.

“Yeah, okay, princey. Guess you’ll have to learn to fight and woo with one arm.”

“Ah, not an easy task, but one I shall accomplish!”

Virgil shakes his head, “How are both you and Patton so unwaveringly exuberant about literally everything?”

Roman holds a hand to his chest while saying, “Ah, tis a gift, my friend. A heavy burden upon our shoulders, right, Patton?”

Pattons pops in with a cheerful “Yup!” from behind.

“I bet he didn’t even know what he was agreeing to.” Virgil rolls his eyes fondly.

Roman opens the door and holds it for him.

“Maybe so. Also, ‘unwavering exuberant’? Someone’s been spending too much time with our local bookworm.” He says just as Virgil is passing him.

Virgil starts blushing immediately and looks sharply back at him. Roman gives him a sly smile and turns away to close the door as the other two follow inside. Logan catches up with him where he’s standing kinda dumbly, thinking over and over,  _ Does he know? _ Logan gives him a concerned look like he’s about to say something, but Patton cuts him off as he excitedly starts herding them all towards the ATM-like machine. He forces his mind to look at the prices on the screen, belatedly realizing as his mind catches up that instead of purchasing tickets or coins to play, you buy a card. You’re able to reload it with points which is deducted each time you scan it to play something. Virgil already likes this place a lot more. No need to carry around a bunch of coins and worry about losing them all. Perfect. He thinks he can easily keep track of one card. Hopefully, anyway.

Roman pays first, then Patton, Logan, and lastly Virgil. He’s just about to slot in his credit card when Logan stops him with his own. He places it in and pays for Virgil instead. Virgil looks at him questioningly, too stunned at first to speak.

Logan hands him his playing card after it's dispensed and Virgil’s fingers brush his as he grabs it and Logan is saying, “For, um, paying for lunch last week.” And  _ wow _ . Okay, heart, calm down.

Virgil’s voice is embarrassingly rough when he responds with, “When you forgot your wallet?”

Logan’s face changes from almost bashful to affronted, like being reminded that Mr. Perfect messed up and forgot something important was quite the annoyance. “Yes. Still I wonder how I did.”

Virgil smiles at him and gives him a joking pat on the shoulder, “It happens to everyone.”

Now they’re just standing and staring at each other. Oh no. Another moment like in the car. It’s like at times he forgets to just act like a friend around Logan. It’s so embarrassing. Thankfully, Roman’s voice cuts in again. This time it’s not as startling.

“Let’s go, lovebirds!”

Virgil takes back his  _ thankfully. _

The two catch up to where the others had already wandered off and Virgil forces all these thoughts into a tightly closed box in his mind, where he hopes they stay, for like ever. Please. He needs to get through this afternoon without a panic attack. His mind jumps to when they had all tried bowling, but Virgil had a panic attack in the bathroom and sat out all while the rest continued. He said it was because he wasn’t feeling too well. Not a total lie in the end. They offered to quit early, but he refused to be the cause of their fun ending. He did enjoy watching them have a good time, even if he felt a little left out. He’s used to that though. He hopes he can have a similar day like that. Just sit back and enjoy watching. He can do that easily.

They all walk around slowly, taking everything in. There’s only a few other people, excluding the workers, which Virgil is ever thankful about. Bless Patton. It’s a large space surprisingly for being in a mall. With grossly neon and black carpet and flashing machines everywhere, it kind of hurts to look at.

Patton gives a little bounce and exclaims, “I’m gonna win all the plushes in the claw machines!” He scurries off and Roman follows behind with, “And I shall help!”, leaving Logan and Virgil alone. Okay, play it cool, Virge. He’s just your good friend who you have known for years now. So what if you’ve had something that may or may not be classified as a crush on him that’s gotten increasingly bigger over the years? Not a big deal. Nope. He squeezes his hands closed tightly for a second to ground him in reality again. He has got to stop drifting so much today. All the while Logan has been standing ever patiently by his side. Most likely not leaving him because he knows how much trouble he has being left alone in public spaces. Virgil feels bad for making him wait while his thoughts overtook him again. Though he knows that out of the other three, Logan is the most understanding when it comes to him losing himself in his mind. He never seems to be annoyed by having to repeat things he or others have said or to have to wait for him to come back and actually take in what’s happening. Just another thing to add to the long, long list of why Virgil has these  _ feelings  _ towards him. He wonders how no one else seems to.

“Well, so, uh.” Damn him and his awkward, stuttering mouth. “Lead - lead the way.”

Logan looks him over briefly and nods to himself. Virgil wants to ask what he was thinking, but he keeps it to himself. He wouldn’t want others to ask that. Logan grabs his hand (Uh,  _ blushing,  _ blushing very hard right now. Keep it cool, Virge!) and leads him to a nearby claw machine. He drops his hand.

“In the same vein as Patton and Roman, I will win a plush.” Logan says while looking at him.

“Um, okay. Cool.” Virgil glances over the machine’s contents. It’s all various Pokemon. His eyes linger on a litten.

“Yes, cool indeed.”

Virgil is pretty unsure because he’s certain that more than half the time these things are completely bogus. He likes Logan’s confidence, though, and he’s interested in watching him. Logan scans his card and it takes three points off from his balance. He braces his shoulders and gets an extremely determined look on his face. Virgil would be watching the claw, but he finds Logan’s focused face impossibly cute. Before he knows it, Logan is smiling triumphantly. Oh God, is he going to survive today?

Logan crouches down (Virgil totally does not check him out) and extracts his prize. It’s a -

“For you.”

A  _ litten. _ Logan hands him the small litten and Virgil can feel his face getting impossibly warm. Did he notice him looking at it? He fingers one of the soft ears and wills his blush away. “Oh, oh. Thank you. That was - that was really nice.”

“No problem.” He’s not looking at him, but Virgil can hear the smile in his voice. Oh God. He’s not going to survive today.

* * *

They continue walking around the place, but neither of them are finding anything interesting. He’s not surprised Logan isn’t particularly wanting to play anything. He’s rarely in the mood for games, and he enjoys puzzle-based ones more. Virgil on the other hand likes all sorts of games, but only in the comfort of his own home. He’s clutching his litten all the while, and he figures that if it ends with neither of them playing something and him just having the litten, he’d call it a good day. He’s just about to suggest finding Roman and Patton when something catches his eyes. He slows to a stop and watches the preview screen of a dancing game. Similar to the ones with the squares and arrows, you follow the screen’s instructions, but it instead has a smooth surface you dance on. You play by it telling you left or right foot in certain spots on the lit up surface, along with jumps and slides. It looks  _ fun.  _ Virgil would have to admit he’s spent many, many hours playing Just Dance. Usually late at night, with no one around. He loves dancing, but he’s never done it in front of anyone.

“Would you like to play?” Logan says, and Virgil startles to which Logan promptly apologizes.

“It’s - it’s okay. And no. I’m, uh, good, I guess.”

Logan looks doubtful. “Are you sure? You seem interested. I would love to watch.”

And, well, Virgil is so close to agreeing. He wants to so bad. Logan said that he would  _ love  _ to watch. He wants to, but there’s a block that he can’t pass that causes his knees to shake a little.

“I will go first. Then, if you are feeling up to it, you can play after.” Logan gives him a purposeful nod.

“I - I would love to watch.” Virgil can only say as Logan climbs on it.

He chooses some random K-pop song and stands in the center. Virgil goes off to the side to catch the screen and Logan himself. The music is a touch too loud, but nothing he can’t deal with. Just before it begins, Logan glances at him and gives him a smile. Virgil is caught too unaware to smile back before Logan is focused on the game. Logan is surprisingly good at it. And though he doesn’t miss too many steps, he’s not really dancing so to speak. Virgil can tell he’s just doing as the screen instructs him to, but that he’s not really getting into it. It ends with Logan getting three out of five stars. Virgil claps and says, “Hey, not too bad, Lo!”

Logan pushes his glasses up, “Yes, three stars is not awful."

Logan plays the next song, though it’s a little harder and he doesn’t do as good. His limit for tolerating dancing seems to have been reached. He steps off with two out of five this time.

“While not exactly my thing, it was enjoyable and slightly embarrassing, admittedly.” 

“It’s rare you ever get embarrassed.”

“Yes, but even if it was, I still had a good time.” 

Virgil can feel mounting courage in him. Even if it is embarrassing, it’s still enjoyable, like Logan said. There’s no one over here but him and Logan. Logan just did it first. Could he possibly try?

He swallows through a dry throat and says with uncertainty, “I want - I want to try it. I think.” He gives litten a hard squeeze.

Logan gives him a wide smile and, oh, Virgil can’t back out now. The block is weakening. Logan pulls a Roman-esque move by bowing slightly and gesturing to the platform. Virgil can’t help but giggle at that. He steps up, gives litten one last squeeze, and hands it to Logan.

“Take care of litten.” He says, gravely.

Logan nods seriously, “I will not disappoint.”

They break out into small laughter after a moment. And, wow, standing here and seeing Logan having a good time by just being here with him and joking, it feels so good. He thinks he can do this. He doesn’t pay too much attention as he picks a random song. Something from BTS. He knows of them. It starts up, and he swears all those nights spent playing Just Dance kick in and he zeroes in on the steps. The world disappears as he does the first moves. He can feel his knees shaking but he doesn’t feel too overwhelmed with panic. He moves swiftly on his left to his right, jumping occasionally or stepping and sliding the foot a certain way. It takes him a moment to get used to the gameplay style, but by the end he gets it and he wants to go  _ again. _ Like, now. He pays no mind as he shreds his jacket, leaving him in just his shirt and shorts with leggings. No jeans today to restrict movement, he muses briefly.

Virgil absently mindly hands his jacket to Logan (He refuses to look at him and lose all his focus and courage.) and selects another random song after seeing his three out of five stars from the first one. Bruno Mars this time. This second round he’s even more into and he can feel his love of dancing pouring out of him. He just enjoys it  _ so much _ and he feels so free when he does it. By the end he’s sweating and panting with a huge grin on his face. Four out of five this time. Nice.

He’s just about to turn to Logan finally when he feels a hand on his shoulder, turning him, and there's Logan  _ right there _ , very close, okay. He’s staring into his eyes as he says, “I thought I knew almost everything about you, and yet you continue to surprise. One of the many things I like about you. To see you dancing so happily…” Logan places a hand on his cheek. “It feels me with great joy. I wish to see it again and again.”

Virgil stares at him, awestruck, and if Logan can’t plainly see his blush, he’s sure he can feel it under his palm. Oh God, wow, how does he even respond to that? Is Logan admitting to having feelings for him? There’s no way. There’s no way. There’s -

Logan kissing his other cheek. Virgil can’t respond when he’s done, so with an even redder face he responds by grabbing both of Logan’s hands and holding them in his own. He nods. What he’s nodding to exactly, he’s not sure, but it’s the only way he knows how to respond. Another moment between them, but not awkward, just full of exciting, unexpected energy.

It’s broken by a simultaneous squeal of excitement and an exasperated “Finally!”. They jump apart and whip around to an audience of Patton and Roman.

“Oh, don’t stop on our account, lovebirds.” There’s that sly smile again from Roman.

Virgil clears his throat and rolls his eyes. “Whatever, princey. You’re just jealous.” He snarks back, his best defense.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t pay attention to me; pay attention to your new boyfriend!” Roman laughs back.

Virgil blushes again and looks to Logan, a question in his expression. Logan smiles and nods. Virgil nods back. Another thing to add to his ever growing list. Logan always knows what he means. 

* * *

Afterwards, Patton shows off all the plushes he rescued, which is  _ a lot _ ; Roman shows off how good he is at a shooting game which admittedly does look hard. The four of them leave, content with the day. All the while Logan and Virgil hold hands, litten in his unoccupied one, and Virgil ends the afternoon way better than he could have ever expected.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, hope u enjoyed!!!


End file.
